Bamburgh

BAMBURGH - JOYOUS GUARD ?

The village of Bamburgh is dominated by its great sandstone
castle which stands on a massive whin sill outcrop, overlooking the
Farne Islands. When viewed from the golf course near the Harkess Rocks
to the north of the village, the castle in its lofty coastal location
looks to good to be true. The building is well described in William
Tomlinson's Guide to Northumberland;

"A more impregnable stronghold could not
be imagined, for rugged strength and barbaric grandeur it is the king
of Northumbrian castles. From nearly every point of the compass its
majestic outlines are visible."

In pre Anglo-Saxon times Bamburgh was called Din Guaire (or Din Guayroi), and
was a tribal stronghold of an ancient British tribe called the
Votadini. The old name has lead some to believe that Bamburgh was the legendary
'Joyous Guard', the castle of Sir Lancelot and Sir
Gallahad in the time of King Arthur.

Bamburgh Castle : David
Simpson

BAMBURGH AND NORTHUMBRIA

Bamburgh's recorded history begins in 547 A.D when King Ida
the Flamebearer established the royal city and capital of Bernicia at
Bamburgh. Bernicia was an expanding kingdom centred upon the Rivers
Tyne and Wear.

King Ida's people were Angles, a fierce piratical race
originating from a region now in southern Denmark near the border with
Germany. As Bernicia expanded it conquered the ancient Celtic speaking
tribes of the region including the kingdom of Catraeth (centred on the
River Tees) and the kingdom of Rheged, in what is now Cumbria.

The rise of Bernicia reached a climax in A.D 603 when King
Aethelfrith of Bernicia (Grandson of Ida), seized control of the
neighbouring Angle kingdom of Deira (now the Yorkshire Wolds). This
resulted in the formation of a new powerful kingdom called Northumbria,
stretching from the River Humber northwards.

Northumbria, occupying
almost a third of the whole British mainland became, at the height of
its influence, one of the strongest Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Britain and
was ruled from two capitals at York and Bamburgh. Although for a time
the supremacy of the Northumbrian kings, was challenged by the great
midland kingdom of Mercia, and the later Viking kingdom of York,
Northumbria remained a fiercely independent Anglo-Saxon province, right
up until the time of the Norman Conquest.

View of Bamburgh from the south : David Simpson

BEBBA'S BURGH AND ARMSTRONG'S CASTLE

The name Bamburgh originates from the time of Aethelfrith, the
first King of Northumbria, who named the fortress or `burgh' after his
wife and queen called Bebba. Over the years the name Bebba's Burgh was
simplified to Bamburgh. Before Aethelfrith's time Bamburgh had
continued to be known by its Celtic-British name Din Guaire (or Din Guayroi).

Over the
centuries Bamburgh Castle has been greatly restored, most notably by
the Victorian industrialist William, Lord Armstrong (1810-1900) and the
oldest remaining part of the building, is now the twelfth century keep.
Today the modern visitor to the castle is more likely to be reminded of
the Victorian age of Armstrong than of Bamburgh's Celtic, Anglo-Saxon
and medieval history. Nevertheless when viewed from afar, the castle
still retains a romantic historical appearance.

Bamburgh and its rocky foundations : David Simpson

A KINGDOM WITHIN THE CASTLE WALLS

One curious though little known event in Bamburgh's history
took place long after Northumbria's `Golden age', at the time of the
Wars of the Roses, when the castle was a staunchly Lancastrian
stronghold.

It was to here in 1464, that King Henry VI and his wife,
Queen Margaret of Anjou fled, following a defeat by the Yorkists in a
Battle at Hexham. For a short time the disheartened monarch held court
at Bamburgh during which time, the great building encompassed the total
extent of his kingdom.

Eventually Henry was defeated when Bamburgh came
under siege from the artillery of Edward IV. It was the first castle in
England to come under fire from cannons.

THE LEGEND OF THE LAIDLEY WORM

Bamburgh is the setting for one of the curious `worm' legends,
which seem to be a regular feature of North Eastern folklore. The story
is that in ancient times the jealous step mother of a Bamburgh princess
turned the young maiden into a laidley (or loathsome) `worm', who began
to terrorise the neighbourhood of Bamburgh and Budle Bay.

For seven miles east and seven miles
west,
And seven miles north and south,
No blade of grass or corn would grow,
So deadly was her mouth.
The milk of seven streakit cows,
It was their cost to keep;
They brought her daily which she drank
Before she went to sleep.
At this day might be seen the cave
Where she lay faulded up,
And the trough o' stone the very same
Out of which she supped.

The princess's brother hearing of the activities of this
terrible beast, returned to England from business abroad (in the
expected tradition) to deal with the serpent. The creature greeted the
prince's ship at Budle Bay near Bamburgh with the following well chosen
verses.

O' quit thy sword, unbend thy brow,
And give me kisses three;
For though I am a poisonous worm,
No hurt I'll do to thee.
O' quit thy sword, unbend thy brow,
And give me kisses three;
If I'm not won here the sun goes down,
Won shall I never be.
So, He quitted his sword and smoothed his brow,
And gave her kisses three;
She crept into the hole a worm,
And came out a fayre lady.

When the prince confronted the stepmother, to whose magic
powers he was immune, she desperately pleaded for his forgiveness.
Showing no mercy the prince responded with revengeful anger and turned
his stepmother into a loathsome toad. The ballad concludes;

And on the land's near Ida's towers,
A loathsome toad she crawls;
And venom spits on everything
which cometh to the walls.

The Ballad of the `Laidley Worm' has similarities with the
Lambton and Sockburn Worm legends of County Durham, but is probably not
of their antiquity. It is said to have been written by a Cheviot
mountain bard in the thirteenth century, but evidence suggests that the
true author was a vicar of Norham on Tweed, many centuries later.